[help] hard reset & firmware forced upgrade for SA Explorer 4250

Is there a way to hard reset and force a firmware update on a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4250HD cable box? We have it through Cablevision/IO.

I have very sluggish performace with menu features and such. In the diagnostic menu, it says its getting a 15dBmV signal, which I think is too hot.

I have replaced the box twice. I have also replaced the cable, the splitter that cable connects to, the cable the connects the splitter to the prior one, and the prior splitter. Keep in mind, the first splitter goes also to a cable modem for cable and voice, which gets perfect signal. My brother's room, which is on my same splitter, also has no problems.

Re: [help] hard reset & firmware forced upgrade for SA Explorer

First of all, the boxes are slow as molasses, almost to the point of unusable for anything other than watching TV. It's not just your box, its the customized software Cablevision puts on the boxes. Secondly, if you think you're having signal issues, rebooting the boxes isn't going to fix it, but if it makes you feel any better you can reboot it by pressing the following three buttons at the same time: Vol - Vol + and Info.

You have 1 2 way splitter, then 2 additional splitters on 1 side for TVs, right? I'd make sure none of the splitters are causing too much loss (either check the levels and make sure they're not losing more than 3.5 dB or 7.0 dB as appropriate). If the splitters are all good, you may need a signal amplifier to be added on the TV side of the split since the signals into the TV are poor.

edit: Correction, if the receive signal is too high, then another splitter may actually help (check the transmit and carrier/noise ratio on the box too). Though it would seem strange to have signal low, and then get higher after a splitter unless it was defective.

My brother's room next door is on the same 2 way splitter as me. He gets a 7dBmV signal and good performance. I just bought a new cable. Our internet/phone modem is fine. Speedtest gives me 14000k download and 2000k upload on the clifton, NJ server.

I do not have "newest is best" mentality. If I could have, I would have bought a 36" CRT SD television instead of this 42" flat panel. Standard def channels look terrible on it (which is all I usually watch). Unfortunately, 4:3 big screen CRTs are rare to come by.